By Bethan Loftus, Martina Feilzer, Benjamin Goold

The ongoing Undercover Policing Inquiry (UCPI) is largely a response to a stream of national media scandals that exposed the illegal and unethical behaviour of undercover police officers in two secretive units. The testimony of those who were the targets of undercover operations has further exposed the human costs stemming from the personalised and highly invasive surveillance undertaken by anonymous state agents. In this article, we reflect upon the existing research on covert policing and identify new areas for conceptual and methodological engagement, with a view to better understanding the harms that these secretive operations can generate. Attending to the inherent and inescapable intimacy of covert policing offers a much-needed opportunity to explore the effects of a unique state practice that can radically alter the lives of individual surveillance subjects, and which tests our conventional understandings of the legitimacy and limits of force, coercion and police power.

The Howard Journal of Crime and Justice, Volume 63, Issue 3, Pages: 245-271 | First Published: 09 August 2024

By Pamela K. Lattimore, Ph.D., Christopher Inkpen, Ph.D.

This report describes findings from the Integrated Dynamic Risk Assessment for Community Supervision (IDRACS) project, a study led by RTI International in collaboration with Applied Research Services, Inc. (ARS) and the Georgia Department of Community Supervision (DCS). The outcome of this project was a suite of predictive algorithms and data management processes that will supplement DCS’s supervision practices, allowing for accurate and time-specific predictions of the risk of felony or violent rearrest or revocation. The authors produced separate models stratified by biological sex and supervision type (straight or split probation and parole). The project team found that including detail on the nature and timing of the underlying criminal history produced more accurate results compared to models that used broad lifetime criminal histories. Furthermore, applying feature selection algorithms suggested that omitting arrests that occurred 5 years before the start of supervision did not worsen model accuracy. Tests of including dynamic measures revealed substantial gains in model accuracy. Additionally, period-specific models proved most accurate for predictions in the first year of supervision. Applying machine learning techniques revealed that while these models sometimes produced modest improvements in accuracy, they were often not significantly or substantively different in contrast to the tradeoffs in model interpretation and ease of implementation when compared to traditional statistical models (i.e., logistic regression). The RTI team also developed and implemented a process that entailed bootstrapping predictions to create confidence intervals around individual predictions, incorporating uncertainty into one’s predicted probability of rearrest.

Research Triangle Park, NC: RTI International, 2024. 140p.

By Interventions Alliance, Jess Lawrence, et al.

LGBTQ+ people have a long and complex history with the justice system and the policing of sexual orientation and gender expression. ‘Homosexual acts’ were only partially decriminalised in England and Wales in 1967 (1981 in Scotland, 1982 in Northern Ireland). The lives of LGBTQ+ people (particularly gay men) were still heavily policed in the following decades, and this legislation was finally replaced in 2004 (Sexual Offences Act, 1967). The sentiment of anti-gay laws and the related association between (and fear of) sexual deviance and gender diversity (Redburn, 2022) can be seen in laws and attitudes across the globe (Miles-Johnson, 2015). In the US, there were city ordinances against ‘cross-dressing’ as recently as 1980, and the legality of using public restrooms aligned to one’s gender identity (as opposed to sex assigned at birth) is still under threat (Dwyer & Valcore, 2023). While there have not been explicitly anti-trans laws in the UK in the last few decades, trans people still fear interacting with police due to the ‘historic baggage’ (Pickles, 2019) and experiencing discrimination and mistreatment from police (Bachmann & Gooch, 2018a). Although LGBTQ+ people now have legal protections from discrimination in the form of the Equality Act 2010, they still have significantly different experiences of the justice system than their cisgender counterparts. Many trans people still express fear and distrust of the police, either due to experiences of victimisation or transphobia by police officers, or due to negative interactions when reporting abuse (Hord & Medcalf, 2020). There is a growing body of research on the experiences of LGBTQ+ people in the justice system, however only a minority of this work has focussed on the experiences of trans people. HM Prison and Probation Service (HMPPS) policy and operational guidance for working with transgender people is heavily focussed on those preparing for, or in prison, or latterly, Approved Premises (Ministry of Justice, 2023a; 2023b). This focus is reflected in the extant research on trans people in the justice system, which also tends to focus on their experiences in prison (such as Maycock, 2022) or other justice related residential facilities (such as Ellis & Opsal, 2023). Meanwhile, research on trans people in the community predominantly considers their experiences of victimisation, discrimination and abuse (Hord & Medcalf, 2020). A summary of this knowledge is outlined below, though it remains that little to no research has been published on the experiences of trans people on probation orders or prison licence.

Hockley, Essex, UK: Interventions Alliance, 2024. 53p.

By Bethan Loftus, Martina Feilzer, Benjamin Goold

The ongoing Undercover Policing Inquiry (UCPI) is largely a response to a stream of national media scandals that exposed the illegal and unethical behaviour of undercover police officers in two secretive units. The testimony of those who were the targets of undercover operations has further exposed the human costs stemming from the personalised and highly invasive surveillance undertaken by anonymous state agents. In this article, we reflect upon the existing research on covert policing and identify new areas for conceptual and methodological engagement, with a view to better understanding the harms that these secretive operations can generate. Attending to the inherent and inescapable intimacy of covert policing offers a much-needed opportunity to explore the effects of a unique state practice that can radically alter the lives of individual surveillance subjects, and which tests our conventional understandings of the legitimacy and limits of force, coercion, and police power.

The Howard Journal of Crime and Justice Early View April 2024

By The New Zealand Law Commission

Significant reform is necessary of the laws protecting the community from reoffending risks posed by some people convicted of serious crimes. This paper presents proposals for the reform of the law governing preventive detention, extended supervision orders and public protection orders.

The proposals respond to the issues identified with the current law and take account of the views submitted during consultation.

Key proposals

• The current preventive measures (preventive detention, ESOs and PPOs) should be repealed and replaced with one new Act.

• The new Act should provide for a cohesive system of new preventive measures to replace existing measures — community preventive supervision, residential preventive supervision, and secure preventive detention — detailed proposals for how these should be administered are made.

• Measures should be imposed at the end of a person’s determinate prison sentence rather than at sentencing.

• The same legislative tests, review processes and qualifying offences should apply to all three new preventive measures.

• There should be a much stronger focus on the rehabilitation and reintegration of people subject to preventive measures.

• The new Act should promote ways in which a Māori group or a member of a Māori group may supervise and care for people subject to preventive measures.

Wellington: New Zealand Law Commission, 2024

By Sarah L. Desmarais, Eva McKinsey, Ethan Rex, and Jessica Smith

Executed by the North Carolina Association of Chiefs of Police (NCACP), UNC School of Government Criminal Justice Innovation Lab (the Lab), Policy Research Associates (PRA), and North Carolina State University (NCSU), the Citation Project sought to improve policing practices through implementation and rigorous evaluation of a model Citation in Lieu of Arrest Policy. On December 1, 2020, four North Carolina police departments implemented the project’s model policy: Apex, Elizabeth City, Wilmington, and Winston-Salem. The evaluation of the model policy examined four questions.

Was the model policy implemented consistently according to its guidelines and recommendations? Our findings indicate challenges with implementation that primarily reflected limited patrol officer buy-in. Despite multiple implementation strategies and consistent buy-in from leadership, some patrol officers expressed discontent with the model policy. This response, along with relatively low completion of required documentation in warrantless arrest encounters, limits our ability to evaluate the impact of the model policy.

Did the model policy increase the use of citations in policy-relevant encounters without increasing involvement of individuals in the criminal justice system? Overall, there was no increase in citation rates following implementation of the model policy. In two pilot sites, citation rates decreased after implementation. When evaluating encounters by offense type, we found that citation rates for traffic offenses were over 98% even before implementation of the model policy, signaling a ceiling effect on any potential impact. Only one site had an increase in citation rates for traffic offenses; the others had no change. We found no meaningful increases in citation rates for the other two offense types examined: non-violent and violent misdemeanors. We also found that the number of encounters over time across all sites decreased. Put another way, there was no evidence of increased involvement in the justice system. This decrease in encounters was likely due to external factors such as COVID-19 and social protests, which stakeholders identified as affecting policing practices.

Did the model policy result in the administration of citations in an equitable manner by race/ethnicity? We found that citation rates did not increase for any racial/ethnic subgroup following implementation of the model policy. Instead, the citation rate decreased for Black people in one site and for both Black and White people in another. We also found that differences across races did not change over time. Finally, although the policy was not designed to address racial differences in overall encounters, we examined that issue for context. We found that in three sites, Black people were significantly overrepresented in misdemeanor encounters with the police and White people were significantly underrepresented.

Did the model policy reduce the amount of time that police and equipment are removed from service during an encounter? Officers saved an average of over ninety minutes per encounter when choosing to cite instead of arrest. However, because of low completion of required documentation in warrantless arrest encounters, the data used for this calculation may not be representative of all encounters covered by the model policy.

Several important qualifications and limitations apply to these findings. These include external factors, such as the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic and periods of social unrest, that overlapped with implementation of the model policy; implementation challenges; overall decreases in misdemeanor charging during the study period; and characteristics of the pilot sites, such as attitudes towards citation in lieu of arrest.

We conclude this report with recommendations for new or continuing implementation of citation in lieu of arrest initiatives. These recommendations include:

1. Conduct a needs assessment and use it to develop a targeted policy.

2. Conduct an organizational assessment to determine whether to implement a policy and how to do so.

3. Use implementation lessons learned from this evaluation to supplement organizational assessment results.

4. Continue to assess and address issues of racial/ethnic equity.

University of North Carolina, School of Government, 2023. 38p.

By Hina Kalyal  Swaleha Naqvi, PhD Volunteer Researcher Nadia Asjad

The impetus behind this report was the death of George Floyd at the hands of a police officer in the United States, triggering global protests against police use of force. In response to the public reaction, many police organizations across North America are now reflecting on their treatment of people of color and devising measures to improve the relationship. The London Police Service is one of the first few police organizations in Canada that have voluntarily undertaken a research project on systemic racism to better serve the culturally and ethnically diverse community of London, Ontario. The specific objectives of the project were: To identify whether service gaps/differences exist during police interactions with White versus the Black, Indigenous, and People of Color (BIPOC) community members of London, Ontario. To determine whether any systemic barriers exist within the LPS that might impact the professional growth and development of BIPOC members; and to conduct an Employment Systems Review to determine whether the current policies  Context of the Report The impetus behind this report was the death of George Floyd at the hands of a police officer in the United States, triggering global protests against police use of force. In response to the public reaction, many police organizations across North America are now reflecting on their treatment of people of color and devising measures to improve the relationship. The London Police Service is one of the first few police organizations in Canada that have voluntarily undertaken a research project on systemic racism to better serve the culturally and ethnically diverse community of London, Ontario. Research Objectives The specific objectives of the project were: To identify whether service gaps/differences exist during police interactions with White versus the Black, Indigenous, and People of Color (BIPOC) community members of London, Ontario. To determine whether any systemic barriers exist within the LPS that might impact the professional growth and development of BIPOC members; and To conduct an Employment Systems Review to determine whether the current policies and procedures followed by the LPS are equitable and fair to all members of the LPS. Research Design The project was divided into three phases. In Phase I, public opinion was sought regarding their interactions with the members of the LPS through in-depth interviews with the BIPOC members of the community, followed by an online survey. In Phase II, interviews were conducted with BIPOC members of the LPS regarding their views about the organizational culture. The interviews were followed by an online survey administered to all members of the LPS. In phase III of the project, an Employment Systems Review (ESR) of LPS human resources policies and procedures was conducted to identify any barriers that may be impeding the progress of BIPOC members in their careers within the organization. Phase I Findings The analysis of interviews conducted with the BIPOC community members during the first phase of the project yielded themes that indicated that police officers were generally impolite and dismissive, relied on stereotypes while interacting with the BIPOC community, and occasionally used excessive force. The survey results highlighted similar themes. However, there was a significant difference of opinion between the BIPOC and White community members regarding the officers of the LPS with the BIPOC respondents showing a higher level of dissatisfaction compared to the White respondents. Phase II Findings The analysis of interviews with BIPOC members of the LPS revealed dissatisfaction with certain elements of the organization’s culture such as the bonding between White members which excluded others and the use of culturally inappropriate language. The BIPOC members also believed that they are discriminated against when it comes to career development and growth opportunities. The results of the survey, which included all members of the LPS, were interesting as the White members claimed that they were the ones being discriminated against, to accommodate diverse and women members. The White members (men) claimed that the organization was relaxing the recruitment and promotion criteria to facilitate the BIPOC members and women, at the cost of organizational effectiveness and the quality of service- delivery by the LPS. Phase III Findings The third phase of the project included an Employment Systems Review (ESR) to assess the Human Resource policies and procedures in order to determine whether any of these documents were creating barriers to the growth and development of diverse members within the organization. While the policies and procedures reviewed were consistent with the principles of equity, diversity, and inclusion outlined by the government, some minor observations were made where LPS could improve its process to enhance employee satisfaction. Summary of Recommendations Based on the findings of the three phases, the recommendations are summarized as follows: LPS should focus on developing training programs for all employees focusing on developing cultural competence and cultural humility, and organizational policies and procedures must reflect these efforts. Resources should be allocated towards community outreach programs to improve public-police relationships and enhance mutually beneficial partnerships. The recommendations of the employee interviews, employee surveys, and the ESR mainly focus on enhancing transparency in the recruitment, selection, employee development, and promotional processes within the LPS. We recommend the introduction of a Human Resource Information System (HRIS) which would streamline the aforementioned processes and enhance employee satisfaction, productivity, and retention.    

London: The Project, 2024. 120p.

By Benkler, Yochai, Farris, Robert, Roberts, Hal

"Is social media destroying democracy? Are Russian propaganda or "Fake news" entrepreneurs on Facebook undermining our sense of a shared reality? Conventional wisdom has emerged since the election of Donald Trump in 2016 that new technologies and their manipulation by foreign actors played a decisive role in his victory and are responsible for the sense of a ""post-truth"" moment in which disinformation and propaganda thrives. Network Propaganda challenges that received wisdom through the most comprehensive study yet published on media coverage of American presidential politics from the start of the election cycle in April 2015 to the one-year anniversary of the Trump presidency. Analyzing millions of news stories together with Twitter and Facebook shares, broadcast television, and YouTube, the book provides a comprehensive overview of the architecture of contemporary American political communications. Through data analysis and detailed qualitative case studies of coverage of immigration, the Clinton scandals, and the Trump-Russia investigation, the book finds that the right-wing media ecosystem operates fundamentally differently than the rest of the media environment. The authors argue that longstanding institutional, political, and cultural patterns in American politics interacted with technological change since the 1970s to create a propaganda feedback loop in American conservative media. This dynamic has marginalized center-right media and politicians, radicalized the right-wing ecosystem, and rendered it susceptible to propaganda efforts, foreign and domestic. For readers outside the United States, the book offers a new perspective and methods for diagnosing the sources of, and potential solutions for, the perceived global crisis of democratic politics."

New York: Oxford University Press, 2018.

 By Julie A. Ward,  Javier A. Cepeda, Dylan B. Jackson, Cassandra K. Crifasi

Much research on shootings by police has focused on urban jurisdictions, but most U.S. law enforcement agencies are not located in cities. Prior research suggests that rates of fatal shootings by police are comparable between urban and non-urban areas. Yet, shooting characteris tics across the urban−rural continuum are unknown. This study describes and compares fatal and nonfatal injurious shootings by officers in U.S. urban, suburban, and rural areas from 2015 to 2020. Methods: Characteristics of fatal and nonfatal injurious shootings by police were abstracted from Gun Violence Archive. In 2023−2024, using ZIP-code and county-based rurality designations, the national distribution, incidence, and characteristics of injurious shootings by police were compared across urban, suburban, and rural areas of the U.S. Results: Rates of injurious shootings in rural areas approached or exceeded those of urban rates. As rurality increased, proportionately more injurious shootings involved single responders, sheriffs, or multiple agency types. Across the urban−rural continuum, characteristics of precipitating incidents were similar. Injurious shootings were most frequently preceded by domestic violence incidents, traffic stops, or shots-fired reports; co-occurring behavioral health needs were common. After accounting for local demographic differences, Black, indigenous, and Hispanic residents were injured at higher rates than White residents in all examined areas. Conclusions: Shootings by police represent an overlooked and inequitable source of injury in rural areas. Broadly similar incident characteristics suggest potential for wide-reaching reforms. To prevent injuries, crisis prevention, dispatch, and response systems must assure proportionate rural area coverage. In addition, legislative prevention and accountability measures should include sheriffs' offices for optimal rural-area impact. 

AmJPrev Med 2024;000(000):1−9. © 2024

By The Policing Project at the New York University School of Law

The Policing Project at the New York University School of Law, in partnership with Microsoft and with funding from the Joyce Foundation and Microsoft’s Justice Reform Initiative, has developed the SAJETM Policing Assessment – a comprehensive tool to define and measure the characteristics of a Sound, Accountable, Just, and Effective policing agency. This assessment of approximately 100 metrics was developed in partnership with police leaders, researchers, and community advocates, and reflects the latest developments in social science, constitutional law, and industry best practice. Agencies respond to each metric with a simple yes/no and provide evidence (e.g., policies, training manuals) to support their responses. SAJETM is not designed to find a “perfect” police department. Rather, the goal is to provide an assessment of a department’s current standing across the four pillars, identifying both areas of strength and areas in need of improvement. In addition, because SAJETM relies on documentation rather than personal observation, it leans toward policy review over actual practice. While some of the metrics do seek to capture specific practices, they do not assess how comprehensively or effectively these practices are being carried out. Future audits may wish to delve deeper into these issues. Insights provided through this tool will help municipal leaders, police departments, and the communities they serve understand agency performance and collaboratively identify challenges and opportunities. At the request of the Office of the District of Columbia Auditor, the Policing Project conducted a SAJETM Assessment of the District’s Metropolitan Police Department (MPD). Dr. Aili Malm, an independent social science researcher, and policing subject-matter expert, assisted the agency in completing the tool as a neutral third-party evaluator. The process took approximately five months to complete. This report outlines MPD’s SAJETM Assessment results. Overall Score MPD’s overall SAJETM score is 81.66%. As MPD is the only agency to complete the tool at the request of an auditor’s office, insufficient benchmarks are available. However, the Policing Project team anticipates that agencies scoring over 70% should be considered well-performing police departments and MPD is over this level. There are some areas in which MPD is performing exceptionally well, and other areas in which improvement may be needed, particularly in the Just Policing pillar. The following sections describe MPD’s results across the four pillars. 

Washington, DC: Office of the DC Auditor, 2024. 45p.

 By Christopher Lewis and Adaner Usmani

Since 2014, viral images of Black people being killed at the hands of the police—Michael Brown, Eric Garner, Breonna Taylor, and many, many others—have convinced much of the public that the American criminal legal system is broken. In the summer of 2020, nationwide protests against police racism and violence in the wake of George Floyd’s murder were, according to some analysts, the largest social movement in the history of the United States. 2 Activists and academics have demanded defunding the police and reallocating the funds to substitutes or alternatives. 3 And others have called for abolishing the police altogether.4 It has become common knowledge that the police do not solve serious crimes, they focus far too much on petty offenses, and they are far too heavy-handed and brutal in their treatment of Americans—especially, Black people. This is the so-called paradox ofunder-protection and over-policing that has characterized American law enforcement since emancipation.5 The American criminal legal system is unjust and inefficient. But, as we argue in this essay, over-policing is not the problem. In fact, the American criminal legal system is characterized by an exceptional kind of under-policing, and a heavy reliance on long prison sentences, compared to other developed nations. In this country, roughly three people are incarcerated per police officer employed. The rest of the developed world strikes a diametrically opposite balance between these twin arms of the penal state, employing roughly three and a half times more police officers than the number of people they incarcerate. We argue that the United States has it backward. Justice and efficiency demand that we strike a balance between policing and incarceration more like that of the rest of the developed world. We call this the “First World Balance.” Wedefendthis idea in much more detail in a forthcoming book titled What’sWrongwith Mass Incarceration. This essay offers a preliminary sketch of some of the arguments in the book. In the spirit of conversation and debate, in this essay, we err deliberately on the side of comprehensiveness rather than argumentative rigor. One of us is a social scientist, and the other is a philosopher and legal scholar. Our primary goal for this research project, and especially in this essay, is not to convince readers that we are correct—but rather to encourage a more explicit discussion of the empirical and normative bases of some pressing debates about the American criminal legal system. Even if our answers prove unsound, we hope that the combination of empirical social science and analytic moral and political philosophy we might have to look like to be sound. In fact, because much of this essay (and the underlying book project) strikes a pessimistic tone, we would be quite happy to be wrong about much of what we argue here.

American Journal of Law and Equality vol. 2, 2022.

By Pyman, Mark and Heywood, Paul M.

This open-access book provides accessible insight into how to tackle corruption in organizations and institutions. It explains how to recognize and analyze corruption issues, together with knowledge and advice on how they can be avoided, prevented, or minimized. It also provides a framework through which readers can examine what strategies are available to tackle corruption issues, a rationale for how to prioritize strategies depending on circumstances and context, and guidance on how to critique various options. The book will appeal to professionals and practitioners, as well as academics interested in governance and corruption.

Cham: Springer Nature, 2024. 

Edited by Judith Goetz and Mayer, Stefanie

This new book brings together research and analyses from five continents in order to promote a global perspective on the thoroughly global phenomenon of the current culture wars around sex and gender. The contributions show how transnational networks spread discourses that were developed in the Global North, and how they become re-articulated in different national, political and religious contexts.In recent years, issues of gender and sexuality have become a political battlefield on which far-right, religious and conservative actors wage their war against liberal and left-wing ideas, as well as emancipatory movements. 'Anti-Gender' crusades, which had originally been launched by the Vatican, deeply impacted societies and politics especially as these discourses were adopted by the secular far-right. Campaigns against sexual and reproductive rights, against gender equality and sexual diversity were waged from Russia to the United States and from Latin America to Japan.

Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press, 2024. 

By Sarah Florini

How black Americans use digital networks to organize and cultivate solidarity unrest gripped Ferguson, Missouri, after Mike Brown, an unarmed black teenager, was shot and killed by Officer Darren Wilson in August 2014. Many black Americans turned to their digital and social media networks to circulate information, cultivate solidarity, and organize during that tumultuous moment. While Ferguson and the subsequent protests made black digital networks visible to mainstream media, these networks did not coalesce overnight. They were built and maintained over the years through common, everyday use. Beyond Hashtags explores these everyday practices and their relationship to larger social issues through an in-depth analysis of a trans-platform network of black American digital and social media users and content creators. In the crucial years leading up to the emergence of the Movement for Black Lives, black Americans used digital networks not only to cope with day-to-day experiences of racism but also as an incubator for the debates that have since exploded onto the national stage. Beyond Hashtags tells the story of an influential subsection of these networks, an assemblage of podcasting, independent media, Instagram, Vine, Facebook, and the network of Twitter users that has come to be known as “Black Twitter.” Florini looks at how black Americans use these technologies often simultaneously to create a space to reassert their racial identities, forge community, organize politically, and create alternative media representations and news sources. Beyond Hashtags demonstrates how much insight marginalized users have into technology.

New York: NYU Press, 2019.

By Benjamin Klosky and Robert Lerman 

Police officers play a vital role in keeping communities safe and enforcing the law. Yet, recent years have witnessed increased retirements, high vacancy rates, and difficulties in recruiting cohorts of new officers. Public distrust of the police and concerns about excessive police violence have exacerbated the recruitment, training, and retention problems of police departments. Officers face extraordinary public scrutiny while remaining vigilant in fighting crime. Still, salaries and fringe benefits for police generally well exceed compensation for other professions that do not require a bachelor’s degree. This policy brief examines the potential for the apprenticeship model to attract a wide group of applicants, to enhance the quantity and quality of training, to improve selection into the full-time force and to do so without increasing department costs. We begin by reviewing the strengths and limitations of the standard recruitment, training, and retention practices that departments use. Next, we describe the police youth apprenticeship model, highlighting several of its key advantages. We then describe how the police department of Fairfax County, Virginia, implements the youth apprentice model to its advantage in recruitment, retention, and quality, and plausibly reduces costs in doing so. We conclude by arguing that police work is a natural fit for on-the-job learning and identify areas for further research into police apprenticeship. 

Washington, DC: The Urban Institute, 2024. 17p.

By  Grasso, Jordan, Stefan Vogler, Emily Greytak, Casey Kindall, & Valerie Jenness.

ACLU research report, documents LGBTQ+ communities’ experiences with police and the disparate treatment they face. In collaboration with scholars from the University of California, Irvine, and University of the Illinois, Urbana-Champaign, this research uses a national probability sample to examine differences between LGBTQ+ and non-LGBTQ+ people, as well as within the diverse LGBTQ+ community. Findings reveal that unique intersections of gender, sexuality, race, and socioeconomic status are associated with different experiences with and attitudes toward law enforcement. The report concludes with concrete recommendations for law enforcement and legislatures

New York: ACLU, 2024.  49p.

By  Yasemin Irvin-Erickson, Auzeen Shariati 

In our study, we examined the potential short-term and long-term impacts of the onset of the Covid-19 pandemic and the murder of George Floyd on victim and third-party reporting of DV incidents to the police using data from the National Crime Victimization Survey. DV incidents during the pandemic lockdown period between March and May 2020 were positively associated with victim reporting to the police, compared to not reporting. Although we observed a decrease in victim reporting and third-party reporting of DV incidents in the months following the murder of George Floyd, this decrease was only significant in the fall months of 2020 for third-party reports of DV. DV incidents during the last pandemic period we considered in our study between April 2021 and December 2022 were positively associated with third-party reporting. We conclude by discussing the implications of these findings.

Journal of Criminal Justice, Volume 90, January–February 2024, 102141

By: Michael R. Smith, Rob Tillyer, Brandon Tregle

A growing body of literature suggests that crime is both concentrated in a small number of geographic units and committed by a small number of people, within American cities. A related body of empirical evidence, dating back almost three decades, suggests that police can effectively combat violent crime in hot spots by focusing resources within them. The current study evaluates the impact of a hot spots policing strategy in Dallas, Texas as part of a comprehensive, city-wide strategic plan to reduce violent crime. Using difference-in-differences techniques, we find consistent evidence that violent crime fell, on average, by 11% in targeted hot spots during the first year of the Dallas Crime Plan with no evidence of spatial crime displacement to adjacent areas. Effects varied somewhat by treatment type. The offender-focused treatment was somewhat more effective than the high visibility treatment alone, but both reduced crime by statistically significant amounts. Arrest analyses likewise revealed differential impacts by treatment type, with significant arrest reductions seen in high visibility treatment areas consistent with deterrence and arrest increases in offender-focused areas consistent with the strategy's focus on violent offenders. The contribution of the targeted hot spots to city-wide violent crime decreased significantly over the course of the year, which provides inferential evidence of the strategy's possible city-wide impact on violent crime. Implications of the study for policy, practice, and future research are discussed.

Journal of Criminal Justice, Volume 90, January–February 2024, 102091

By Ferhat Tura, James Hunter, Rebecca Thompson and Andromachi Tseloni

This article presents a comprehensive methodology aimed at assessing the commitment of police forces in England and Wales to problem-oriented policing (POP). By evaluating various policing styles and their adoption, the study seeks to provide a clearer understanding of how these approaches impact community relations and crime reduction. Through a combination of qualitative and quantitative analysis, the authors identify key indicators of POP implementation and offer insights into the factors influencing its effectiveness. This exploration not only contributes to academic discourse on policing strategies but also serves as a practical guide for law enforcement agencies striving to enhance their community engagement and operational efficiency.

Oxford University Press, 2022, 14 pages

By The Independent Commission Against Corruption (NSW)

This guide assists NSW public sector agencies in understanding the nature and prevalence of common and systemic corruption issues they are likely to encounter. The NSW Independent Commission Against Corruption (“the Commission”) publishes information on only a few investigations among the thousands of allegations and reports it receives. Underrepresented in these reports are many of the most common, often systemic forms of misconduct that public sector agencies encounter. This guide is designed as an introduction to these minor but common forms of corrupt conduct within the public sector in the knowledge that preventing low-level corruption is an important element of reducing and preventing corruption overall. Preventing minor but common forms of misconduct is important for a number of reasons: widespread minor instances of misconduct can amount to a significant financial loss as well as to serious or escalating acts of corruption. Less serious forms of misconduct can also provide agencies with early warning about internal controls that could be improved, and the prevalence (or absence) of common forms of corruption plays an important role in determining an agency’s workplace norms. For these reasons, identifying and preventing minor acts of corruption is a high priority for the Commission.

Key areas and issues include

• Recruitment

• Procurement and contract management

• Timesheet, roster, and payroll fraud

• Outside employment

• Misuse of resources, including time

• Misappropriation of goods and funds

• Failures to identify and disclose conflicts of interest

• Unauthorized use of information

The guide outlines measures that can assist as corruption controls, as well as highlighting key risks, red flags, and best practice controls for each key area.

Sydney: The Commission, 2024.